Mistakes
by Clearly Odd
Summary: Peter is angry-nothing new there, but what Janine wants to know is why. Tag to the episode "Janine's Genie," adding the tweak that Egon and Peter are in an established relationship. Previously mistakenly published under another account, in case anyone is confused


Author's Note: Tag to the episode "Janine's Genie," with the tweak that Peter and Egon are in an established relationship.

-/-/-

Janine frowned as Peter came down the stairs and walked right past her desk without so much as a glance. It wasn't unusual for the psychologist to be an utter grump in the mornings, of course, but it was well past 10:30 and he appeared freshly-showered and fully dressed, indicating that he was awake by now. This was the third morning in a row Peter had snubbed her, when he had always paused in the past to make some snarky comment or, at the very least, to say hello. Janine knew they weren't the best of friends, but she also knew they certainly didn't dislike each other as much as they appeared to. At least, she'd thought that was true.

"G'morning, Dr. V." Janine tossed out, casually as possible, before the doctor in question had made it into his office.

The red-head glanced up in time to see Venkman raise an eyebrow and nod slightly in her direction before disappearing from sight.

Well.

Janine sat back in her chair, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. That was unexpectedly cold, particularly coming from Peter. If that man was angry—and it seemed that he was—everyone within a three block radius knew it. Subtlety might not have been a problem for him under most circumstances, but he had a very weak hold on his temper; if you ticked him off, he'd yell himself hoarse and then seem to forget all about it. What Janine had done to incur the silent treatment from someone who loved to hear themselves talk, she wasn't sure. She did, however, intend to find out.

-/-/-

"Hey, Ray?" Janine inquired across the room to where the ghostbuster was bent under the hood of Ecto-1.

He didn't seem to hear her, only leaning further into the mechanical wonderland in which he was absorbed. Janine huffed. So much for being quiet. "RAY!" Her shout this time managed to startle the man out from under hood, nearly catching his head on it in the process.

Ray glanced around wildly before coming to the conclusion that Janine had summoned him. "Sorry, Janine, I didn't hear you. Whatcha need?" He smiled, wandering over to her desk.

Janine, herself, glanced around a moment before looking back to Ray. "Dr. V ain't around anywhere, right?" She inquired; she knew he wasn't, but she wanted to be sure.

"Nah, went out to get us some lunch. Shouldn't be back for another 10 minutes or so." Ray frowned, "Why?"

"I just wanted to ask- you haven't noticed anything… off about him the past few days, have you?" The secretary asked slowly.

"Uh… no, not really. Why do you ask? D'you think something's wrong?"

"I dunno, Ray, I mean… It's just that he's been giving me the cold shoulder for three days straight now and I don't know why!" Janine tossed her hands up in exasperation, "It's not _that_ big of a deal, I guess. I mean, we don't exactly have a lot of meaningful conversations at the best of times, but obviously I did something to really tick him off and I wanna know what."

"Oh. Well, uh… I mean, it isn't exactly something… well, that's not to say that- er," Ray stumbled over his words, looking everywhere around the garage and office but at the woman he was speaking to.

"Ray…" Janine drew his name out, frowning up at him, "Just spit it out, would you? I can take it."

The engineer's shoulders slumped in defeat. "Alright, alright. You remember the whole episode with the genie?"

"Well of course I do, it only happened three… days ago…" Janine trailed off, the answer dawning on her.

Ray shrugged. "I can't say for sure what it was, but something about that whole incident really shook Peter up. I didn't even see him around at all that night. I thought he'd pretty much let it go, but I guess maybe he didn't."

"I doubt it. You shoulda seen the look he gave me earlier when I tried to say good morning," The secretary huffed, "I mean, geez, it's not like none of us have ever made a mistake before! What right has he to get so cheesed, when he's screwed up as much as any of us?"

When no answer was forthcoming, she attempted to pin Ray down with a glare. "The rest of you guys forgave me. Even Egon did, after I apologized. You all said you didn't even remember a lot of what happened that day." Ray simply continued to shuffle his feet, as if he were pining for an escape, "What are you not telling me, Stantz?"

"Okay, look, you didn't hear this from me, but… there are just- there are extenuating circumstances, in Peter's case." At Janine's quirked eyebrow, Ray threw his hands up as if to protect himself, "I can't tell you what! You're going to have to talk to Peter about that."

Janine frowned. "Well, that'd be a lot easier if you could give me some kinda heads up as to what I'm talking to him about, y'know."

"Janine, I…"

"C'mon, Ray. Just a hint?" Janine cajoled.

"Um- Oh, look! Peter's back!" Ray practically cried out in relief, "Hey, Peter!"

The psychologist looked somewhat startled as Ray jogged up to him, reaching out for one of the bags of takeout in his hands. "Oh, no you don't! Go wash your hands and then maybe I'll let you touch some of this. I'm not dealing with your greasy paw prints all over the spring rolls again." Peter groused, sidestepping Ray and heading for the stairs.

"Yeah, okay. I'll be up in a minute." Ray waved him by good-naturedly.

"Hey, Dr. V- you got anything for me in there?" Janine inquired, gesturing towards the bags full of Chinese food.

"I don't know. Did you ask for anything?" Peter asked, barely turning to look at her on his way across the room.

"What'dya mean, did I ask for anything? Nobody _asks_ for anything, you've got everybody's orders memorized!"

Peter stopped for a moment at the foot of the stairs and shrugged. "Well I must've forgotten yours." He replied before taking the steps two at a time, leaving his secretary staring after him in disbelief.

Ray came over to stand by her desk, grimacing in sympathy. "Wow, he really is ticked at you. I don't think I've seen him this mad in a long time. Don't worry, though. You can have some of mine if you want." He offered with a small smile.

Janine did her best to return it. Sweet and sour pork was a far cry from her usual shrimp fried rice, but it was a nice gesture. "Thanks, Ray."

-/-/-

A few scheduled busts in the afternoon and an emergency evening call kept Janine from bringing anything up to Peter until the following day. He swept right past her desk at nine, surprisingly early considering they didn't have any busts until after noon. As predicted, he didn't say a word to her and she didn't stop him this time. She gave the divider a moment to stop swinging before she put down her pen and headed over.

Normally she didn't have a problem barging in to his section of the office area without warning, often to drop off paperwork or remind him of encroaching deadlines. This time, however, she thought it prudent to pause at the divider and, in lieu of a door to knock on, rap the filing cabinet a few times. Peter glanced up in surprise—nobody _knocked_ before entering his office, or even to get his attention—but his face came back to neutrality when he saw Janine standing there. "Need something?" He asked.

"Yeah. I need to talk to you." The red head replied, stepping into his office and settling herself in the chair in front of his desk.

He shut the file he'd been looking at and sat back in his chair. "So talk."

Janine scowled, but pushed forward. "You're mad at me." She stated bluntly.

Peter seemed surprised for another moment; subtlety wasn't Janine's strong suit, though, and if he expected her to beat around the bush, he would be disappointed. It didn't take him long to recover, in any case. "Yeah, actually. I am."

"Well I want to know why." Janine demanded, "I know it's got something to do with the whole genie fiasco."

Venkman scoffed, rolling his eyes, but Janine didn't rise to the bait. "No, I know it does. Look," She paused, gathering her thoughts, "I know I screwed up, okay? I work with a bunch of ghost specialists; I shouldn't have trusted that little creep in the lamp. I know that. But I also know that we've all made some pretty stupid mistakes in the past. It's not like you're so perfect yourself, I could name off a handful of stupid things you've done just in the past year."

When Peter sat forward in his chair, ready to retaliate, she just shook her head. "But I'm not gonna, 'cause I don't think this really has anything to do with me screwing up. The rest of the guys forgave me, so I gotta figure this is about something else to you."

Silence fell over the office as Janine waited for the ghostbuster's response. Finally, he obliged. "It was a pretty big screw up, Melnitz."

"Everyone here has made mistakes, Venkman—that wasn't even the biggest one made in the past few months and you know it!" Janine objected.

"Yeah, well, no one else's mistake cost us all our free will!" Peter threw back, standing up behind his desk.

Janine's mouth shut with an audible click. In the moments it took her to form a response, Peter continued his tirade. "Do you have any idea what it's like to have someone force you to do something, Janine? To have someone take you over so completely that you're not even sure you're you anymore? When you made that wish, that _genie_ infected all of our heads! It just got right in there—took our thoughts and actions and changed them!"

"I- Dr. V, I'm sorry, but it… I mean, all he did was make you think I was your boss, it wasn't…" Janine tried to cut in, but Peter continued as though she hadn't said a word.

"It feels so goddamn wrong, having something else in your head like that, do you know that? And you know, the only thing I have to compare it to, the only time I've ever felt anything like that, is when Wat got inside me!" He paused a moment, before lowering his voice a bit, "And I got over that the first time, you know that? But the guys don't have any kind of experience with this sort of thing and let me tell you, knowing that you were under the power of someone else, that you couldn't do a damn thing to stop it? That fucks with your head, Janine."

The red head couldn't think of anything to say in reply to that. She sat in her chair, stunned to silence, as Peter retook his seat. He sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. "Don't get me wrong. I think they're all dealing with it fine. I talked to them. It's- it's not like it was complete possession. You just… can't expect me not to be pissed about something like that, you know."

"No, I…" Janine found her voice at last, "I know. I didn't… I didn't think of it that way. I really didn't. And I'm sorry. The genie… he didn't even give me any rules or guidelines, so I didn't think… I guess I didn't think at all."

Ashamed of the pain she had unwittingly caused her friends, Janine looked down at the floor, wondering how she might begin to make up for it. "Look, Janine, that's not even the big reason I'm pissed. I mean, yeah, it got me a bit, but I could forgive that. You wanna know the reason I'm so angry at you?" He asked, scowling at Janine as she looked back over at him.

"Well what else did I do wrong? I can't even think how I'm gonna make up for what you've already told me and now you're saying I did something even worse?" She asked, not feeling half as venomous as the words she spat.

"Hey, the first wish was forgivable. It was what you did to Egon that I can't get over." Venkman replied icily.

"What I did to… oh, no!" Janine gasped, "He- he must be so upset with me! But I- but he said it was alright! I apologized and… and he forgave me. Didn't he?"

"Oh, yeah, he did. _I _didn't. We remember enough of the day to know nothing big happened between you two. But that doesn't mean you should've done it at all!"

Janine was silent again, but only for a moment. She wasn't one to take abuse, even if some small part of her still felt like garbage. "Look here, Dr. V, I know you're Egon's best friend and all, but technically that wish is just between me and him. I know what I did was wrong and I apologized. And he forgave me. I know you're angry, but that one doesn't really have anything to do with you."

Peter's eyebrows went so high Janine wondered if they were going to hit his hairline. "Doesn't have anything to do with me, huh?" He growled, "Did you ever think that maybe, just maybe, by wishing Egon was in love with you, you might be taking him away from _someone else_?"

Janine frowned in utter befuddlement. "Someone else? Egon doesn't… I mean, he's not…" Peter cleared his throat almost awkwardly, glaring at a point somewhere over Janine's head, "You don't mean…?"

"Yeah. I do mean." Peter muttered, finally looking back to the secretary.

For her part, Janine couldn't decide of this was more of a cold shock or a searing disappointment. Perhaps equal measures of both. Several questions swirled around in her chest, but the only one that made it up her throat was, "How long?"

"Couple months shy of a year." The man before her answered.

"…Oh." Was the only response she found appropriate.

Minutes ticked by in awkward silence. Janine had more questions, more things to say, if she could only find her voice, and Peter didn't seem to have the heart to tell her to go. Perhaps his usual method of shouting had exercised some of his anger. Or maybe he was just waiting to see if Janine felt as bad as he seemed to think she should. Finally, the red head broke the stretching quiet. "I didn't know."

"Yeah, well, now you do." Peter huffed, "We're kinda trying to keep it down. Ray knows. Winston probably knows, but we didn't tell him. Slimer knows, but only because the spud is everywhere you don't want him to be at the worst time…"

"So I'm the only one?"

"I didn't say for sure that Winston knows…" Peter replied, his tone almost defensive.

"I…" Janine sat back in her chair, thoroughly floored and disheartened by the news, "I didn't know. So you know… that I didn't do it on purpose. You have to know that if I knew, I never would've… I'm not the sort of girl who would try to break people up."

Peter sighed. "Yeah. I know that. I guess… you know why I was angry now. And you don't really have any reason to feel that bad. Like you said, we all make mistakes."

Janine stiffened at the sudden turnaround in the psychologist's attitude. "I don't need any of your pity," She sniffed, "I'm a big girl, I can handle this."

She stood to exit the office before Peter could further damage her dignity, but a hand on her wrist stopped her. "This isn't pity, Janine. This is about as close as you'll ever see me to apologizing. I was pissed, yeah, and I needed someone to be pissed off _at_. You fit the bill. That wasn't fair. I can't string you up over one mistake for this long. You guys never do it to me, and, hey… I screw up as much as anyone."

A little huff of laughter came from Janine at the unintentional echo of her earlier statement. "Probably more." She reminded him wryly.

The man rolled his eyes but shrugged. "Yeah, probably. What of it?" He asked with the shadow of a smirk.

"Nothin' of it. Just making sure your head doesn't get too big. Someone around here has to." Janine shrugged, herself, as Peter released her wrist.

"I don't pay you extra for that." He replied.

"You hardly pay me at all!" Janine snapped, out of habit, before continuing, "Anyway, I consider it a perk of the job."

"You would." Peter muttered, sitting back down in his chair.

Janine shook her head and made for the divider, eager to be back in her own space. "Janine," A call of her name stopped her just as she was pushing through the swinging gate, "I… I am sorry we didn't tell you. We probably owed you that."

She sighed. "Yeah. But like I said, I'm a big girl. I guess I'll just have to get over it."

Finally, Janine was able to slump down at her own desk, laying her head on her hands. What an awful week.

She was just working herself up into a good sulk when Peter's voice caught her attention again. "Janine?" He called around the filing cabinet.

With a roll of her eyes, Janine barely sat up enough to reply, "What, Dr. V?"

"Turkey and Swiss with spicy mustard on rye sound good for lunch?" He called out.

Janine almost laughed out loud as he rattled off her favorite sandwich order. "Yeah. Yeah, it does."

-/-/-


End file.
